Not Short and Sweet: A Conversation with Boston Student Organizer Jahi Spaloss (Part 1/3)
The second installment of our “Not Short and Sweet” series will come in three parts to be released over the next week. If you missed the first installment, “A Conversation With Refugee and Immigrant High School Students”, you can find it here along with an explanation of the entire series.
The Student Voice Tour recently left Boston where I had the privilege of interviewing student organizer Jahi Spaloss. You might have seen some of Jahi’s handiwork this past school year when thousands of Boston students walked out of class to protest cuts to education.
But as always, there is more to the story than what was reported. This conversation with Jahi touches on his relationship with local gangs, his dislike of school, and his organizing roots. Happy reading, and watch out for part II!
Jahi: My name is Jahi. I’m going to be taking a year off. I recently got accepted into a gap year program called Year-Up. It’s a trade business program that gives young urban teens like myself a head start with the business and corporate world. Teaches hands on learning and such. You also get 25 college credits after you graduate from them.
Andrew: What are the typical things students from your school do after graduating?
Jahi: Well, they apply to college. For me, my perspective on college is like — I would say, the narrative that if you just work hard, you’ll make your dreams come true and that college is the answer…I never saw any of that. I kinda saw the real world of that at a very young age. I actually know many homeless people who have PhD’s. It’s quite surprising and if that’s what education gets you then you’ve got to wonder, can everyone be successful?
I also always hated school. I’ve never really liked just sitting in a classroom and writing stuff down. It f*cking sucks. So I feel like investing in college now is just more of a waste of my time and money and I should invest myself into something more that’s more productive and still takes me to the track I want and my future goals.
Andrew: Where would you say the majority of your learning has happened if not in school?
Jahi: The majority of my learning has actually happened in two places. One would be the organizing world. And the other would literally be from…the streets really. I’ve learned a lot form just like being around different communities around Boston and such. Most of the stuff I’ve learned, even like just life skills and life lessons came from like several different rivalry gang members which is why I don’t really get into trouble. I learned from the best.
Andrew: How prevalent are gangs around you and your network?
Jahi: I would say it’s pretty common. It’s definitely not discrete. You can spot them a mile away. They basically just advertise themselves. But it’s more the OG’s around here that are real discrete. Which are the ones that I just by fate always ran into. It would always teach me something. How to properly run a business or how to detect if someone were to lie, make sure to keep my investments to myself. They taught me how to invest myself in something and how to sell myself out in the streets.
Andrew: That’s interesting right? Because I think a lot of people see gangs as the reason why students aren’t successful and what you’re saying is that they’ve helped you.
What people don’t understand is that they stereotype most gangs and see them as a group of criminals.
Jahi: What people don’t understand is that they stereotype most gangs and see them as a group of criminals. But there is something that group shares with each other, and it’s like the sense that you are now a part of this family — this tribe. And what do tribes do? They take care of their own. They take care of their kin. They pass on rituals. Gangs are going to be forever perceived as bad or evil and such, but you can kinda say that the US Congress are a gang. You could say the police are a gang too. But yet people see them as the good guys. So really, it’s not necessary that a gang is evil or good. It’s about what they use their money to invest into that makes them seem like that.
Andrew: Does your relationship with your gangs in the community ever come in conflict with your organizing?
Jahi: No. Not at all. Honestly, I see them as going hand in hand. They both have that family sense. Like for me…my first time getting into organizing was back in middle school when I was 13 years old at Harbor Pilot Middle School. There was an organization that rallied around environmental justice. They explained their campaign to my school and said that they were looking for new members and also potential organizers to join their campaigns and such. With them, I’ve been part of the MBTA fare hikes movement. After almost a decade we finally got a new T pass for youth around the city and such called the youth pass. Which is basically a monthly pass that costs only 25 bucks that you can get from age 12 until age 25.
Andrew: Why did it take so long? What was the opposition?
Jahi: The opposition was really the MBTA and them not wanting to lose any money. Youth like to be outside, but many of us come from different spots where we all don’t have money easy like that. Especially with the MBTA continuing to raise the price. It seems like they are gentrifying their passengers in a way.
Andrew: What was the straw that broke the camels back? How did you end up getting this to happen?
Well, honestly, we got it by just agitating with the masses. Getting people informed. Organizing marches. Going to hearing and such. Testifying. Talking with our legislators and such.
Jahi: Well, honestly, we got it by just agitating with the masses. Getting people informed. Organizing marches. Going to hearing and such. Testifying. Talking with our legislators and such. And it was just really just like continuing the fight and keeping up the movement. And finally, we talked with some of the MBTA officials and started negotiating and got something down flat for the youth pass. Last year we had the pilot version of it, but it’s now officially out. Any young person like 12 -24 can just go to the store and buy a youth pass right on the spot.
Andrew: You talked about gangs being part of your family. But what about your actual family?
Jahi: Well, my family never actually knew that I knew gang members around the city or that I even hung out or associated myself with them and such. Because I already knew what the reaction was going to be. No parent wants their kid hanging around street gangs at all. They see it as trouble. People always said I was very wise for a young age, but I was just very observant. I would pick and choose what actions were appropriate at the time and whether or not I should do something. So you know, I was sure they didn’t know. Same with organizing. There were up and down hills with organizing. I committed myself 100% to different movements and campaigns. It started affecting my school work and such but I mean regardless if I were an organizer or not that would’ve been nothing too. That’s the point I try to make with my parents.
Andrew: What was affecting your schoolwork?
Jahi: I would spend a lot of time just organizing and stuff and getting stuff done than really caring about school. School is great and all but I want to put my work into something that could be changed now.
Andrew: Was there ever a moment in school that you did feel like you were supposed to be there?
Jahi: Not until junior year of high school. In junior year I was taking my humanities class and at one point we were doing a lesson about a group called the “Young Lords.” They were a collaborative chapter group of the Black Panthers. Basically with mostly Puerto Ricans. They first started out in Chicago fighting against the city and segregation during the civil rights movement. They were fighting against this mistreatment of Latinos in housing and how much inequity there is in the city for minorities. Back then the city of Chicago didn’t care much for the Latinos or the minorities.
They would destroy their neighborhoods and leave them in the poorest conditions for housing. Garbage trucks wouldn’t event come down to their blocks for like months and such. And it wasn’t after they started the giant trash wall…which, basically, they gathered all the trash and turned it into a giant wall in the middle of the street in the neighborhood. The city had called the cops because it was a safety issue and as the cops tried to dismantle the wall the people got up and started pelting the trash at the police officers. These were young people.
They also occupied Lincoln hospital. It was one of the worst hospitals in Chicago at the time. They had very little medical supplies they had lead contamination in the needles. The city was not giving any money or trying to acknowledge the fact that there were major health issues. It wasn’t until they occupied the hospital and came around with armed weaponry and such that the mayor and city officials started taking them seriously.
Stay tuned for more from my conversation with Jahi next week.
